President Donald Trump unleashed an earthquake on the U.S. immigration system during his first full month in office, quickly overturning Biden-era policies and overhauling how authorities conduct enforcement in the interior and at the border.
An order late Wednesday, which was implemented a day ahead of the administration’s one-month mark, directed all federal agencies to identify all federally funded programs currently providing any financial benefits to illegal immigrants and “take corrective action.” The order is intended to ensure that any federal funds to states and localities “will not be used to support sanctuary policies or assist illegal immigration.”
But it was just the latest in what has been a battery of overhauls to the U.S. immigration system.
TRUMP FREEZES APPLICATIONS FOR BIDEN-ERA MIGRANT PROGRAMS AMID FRAUD, NATIONAL SECURITY CONCERNS
President Donald Trump speaks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday. (Pool via AP)
Day One
Trump, who ran his campaign centered on border security and cracking down on illegal immigration, got to work on day one of his administration — signing executive orders that declared a national emergency at the border and deployed the U.S. military. He also signed orders ending birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants, suspending refugee admissions and also ending the use of the CBP One app at the southern border to admit migrants via humanitarian parole.
Other orders included moves to restart border wall construction, which had ended under the Biden administration.
It wouldn’t take long before the moves were followed up by additional decisions from Cabinet agencies. The Pentagon quickly deployed troops to the southern border and also opened up Guantánamo Bay to flights of migrants.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also issued orders that ended limits on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) imposed by the Biden administration on “sensitive” places, and also took limits on the use of expedited removal, allowing the rapid-fire removal process to be used more broadly after being limited by the prior administration. Another order allowed ICE to review the parole status of migrants brought in under parole, opening them up to deportation.
DHS has also gone after federal funding to migrant causes. Most recently, four Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employees were fired and tens of millions of dollars taken back from New York City designated for hotels where migrants are being housed.
“Secretary [Kristi] Noem has clawed back the full payment that FEMA deep state activists unilaterally gave to NYC migrant hotels,” a DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
Raids
Meanwhile, the administration quickly moved to ramp up interior arrests and deportations. A number of high-profile raids were quickly launched across the U.S., particularly in “sanctuary” cities that do not cooperate with ICE agents. Daily arrests quickly moved above 1,000 a day, and officials pointed to a number of criminals and gang members that were picked up in the process.
According to DHS data, obtained by Fox News Digital, there were 11,791 interior ICE arrests from Jan. 20 to Feb. 8, compared to 4,969 during the same period in 2024. That’s a 137% increase.
Arrests of aliens with criminal histories have soared by nearly 100% from 4,526 in the same period in 2024 to 8,993 under Trump this year. Arrests of fugitive aliens at-large, meanwhile, have gone up from 2,164 to 5,538, a 156% increase. Arrests of criminal aliens in local jails have risen 59%.
DHS SAYS IT ‘CAN, SHOULD AND WILL’ ADMINISTER POLYGRAPH EXAMS AMID ICE RAID LOCATION LEAKS
ICE and DEA conduct migrant raids in New York City. (Drug Enforcement Administration New York)
Biden-era efforts quashed
The new Trump era has seen the rapid unwinding of a number of Biden-era programs. Fox News Digital confirmed on Wednesday that DHS has now paused pending applications for three Biden-era programs: Uniting for Ukraine; parole processes for Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela (CHNV); and family reunification programs.
Trump had already ordered an end to the use of some Biden-era parole programs on day one, including CHNV. He had also ordered the end to the practice of paroling migrants at ports of entry who had made appointments on the CBP One app.
At the time, the Biden administration touted the expansion of “lawful pathways,” claiming they were part of an effort to reduce illegal crossings, but Republicans accused the administration of abusing limited parole power and allowing in migrants who should not legally have entered.
The Trump administration has also suspended refugee resettlement, which had expanded under the Biden administration. It has also frozen funding to foreign nations, which was a cornerstone of the “root causes” strategy championed by the prior administration.
International diplomacy
Migration strategies often require foreign cooperation, and the Trump administration used diplomacy and tariff threats to secure additional cooperation with neighbors and other countries in the region.
Both Canada and Mexico agreed to ramp up their border security efforts after Trump floated new tariffs on incoming goods from their countries. Meanwhile, both Venezuela and Colombia agreed to take back their immigrants being deported, with Colombia’s president backing down after a public clash with President Trump.
Guatemala, separately, agreed to accept deportees from other countries as part of a deal hashed out with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
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Having an effect?
So far, there are indications that border numbers continue to trend lower with the new administration.
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) apprehended just 29,116 illegal immigrants along the southern border during the month of January, down from 47,000 in December and hitting a low mark not seen since May 2020, when 32,349 arrests were made at ports of entry, according to a White House press release.
Meanwhile, border czar Tom Homan said this week that Border Patrol “has encountered a total of 229 aliens across the entire southwest border” in a single day and rallied around President Trump, saying, “He is delivering.”
“That is down from a high of over 11,000 a day under Biden,” he said. “I started as a Border Patrol Agent in 1984, and I don’t remember the numbers ever being that low.”
Fox News’ Michael Lee and Bill Melugin contributed to this report.